"A day in the life of an American 'walk-in' clinic." Chapter 19: The Waiting Room

For our second semester Journalism class, we were asked to watch the 2012 documentary film The Waiting Room. Our instructors asked us to post a blog detailing our experience, comparing/contrasting the American healthcare system with the Canadian healthcare system, and reviewing the film based on what we know about effective documentaries.

This is that blog post.

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The Film

Watch The Waiting Room. No matter who you are, where you're from, what political stance you may take, how you feel about ObamaCare, how you feel about the Canadian healthcare system, how often you've been sick, or how strong your immune system is, watch the documentary.

Not because it's a revolutionary film, not because it's a one-of-a-kind critique of a broken system, not because it'll change your life...

Watch it because you need to recognize and understand the giant social gap that exists in the so-called first-world Country that is the United States of America.

The film is a snapshot - a day in the life of an American 'walk in' clinic/emergency room in Oakland CA. There are some angels working there. Literal guardian angels that are sacrificing their lives for the basic needs of others, and the film really paints an insane portrait of what these people go through every single day.

Evoking empathy isn't an easy task for a filmmaker. Being able to tell a story without spin, without bias, without preconceived notions about what narrative you think the audience ought to follow is an art form, and Peter Nicks did an incredible job directing this movie and telling this story.

There are hundreds of angry, sick, pained, and frustrated individuals that are simply looking to be cured. Healed. Relieved of their suffering. It's painful to watch at times.

The Issues

I've read multiple blogs from my colleagues and most of them are saying this documentary is a commentary on the broken medical system that the United States is currently attempting to remedy through ObamaCare and other measures.

I don't think that was the only intention with the film, though.

I came away with a different sense of what was wrong with the society being portrayed here. There are serious economical and social issues that need to be addressed before the problem is solved. Giving people universal healthcare helps, sure, but it doesn't attack the weed at its roots - it simply trims the leaves. Temporary band-aid fixes for a serious, deeply-rooted problem.

At points in the film, there are people being carted into the emergency room with gunshot wounds, stab wounds, drug overdoses, and a plethora of other completely avoidable problems. There is no possible way medical professionals can keep up, or more importantly, give the rest of the people with legitimate diseases and ailments proper care.

According to KQED, a Public Media site for Northern California, there were 2,091 armed robberies and 783 shootings reported in Oakland alone in 2012.

I don't mean for this to turn into another anti-gun rant but when a room full of hundreds of legitimately sick people can't receive the treatment they need because the doctors and nurses are busy trying to save another gunshot victim that EMS just carted into the hospital... something needs to change. And I think that's part of what Nicks wanted us to realize.

I walked out of this documentary thankful, though. Thankful that I've been blessed with the opportunity to grow up in Canada. Staying healthy shouldn't completely cripple you financially and it's simply not right that a guy my age got a tumor in his nut, and just because he doesn't have a job with health insurance, he doesn't know how he's going to afford the surgery. That's completely unfair and hopefully these imbalances in America are addressed in Obama's last 4 years.

The Rest

We're spoiled in Canada. Nothing is perfect and our system is far from it, but if one takes a look mere hours south of us to see what the poor, downtrodden, uninsured people of the States have to deal with, there's no way we'd ever think complaining about our imperfect system was justified.

My experience, and my family's experience, has been nothing short of incredible. My brother has needed multiple surgeries, I've broken bones and been hit in the head with a god damn javelin and I've still lived an extremely comfortable life. (thanks in part to my parents working their asses off to give us the best life possible, too.)

I can't imagine being financially devastated because of something I couldn't control, and The Waiting Room vividly shows us that there are probably thousands of families whose reality is exactly that.

Watch it. It's worth your 81 minutes.

                                                                                                                  -NxB

Playing: Path Of Exile by Grinding Gear Games 

Listening to: Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing" (PRETTY MUCH ON REPEAT)

If I Was Evander Kane's Publicist... Chapter 18: "Some unsolicited advice."

If I was Evander Kane's publicist, here's the unsolicited advice I would give to him.

1. You (via the NHLPA) and your employer (the NHL) just spent months negotiating a new CBA, which basically, was millionaires arguing with billionaires. Bragging about how much money you make and how awesome your life is will not earn you respect from fans, peers, or analysts. Don't do that.

2. If/when you take a trip to Vegas (as most young men do) and you happen to win a fat stack of cash, don't tweet a picture of yourself to another millionaire bragging about it, simply text it to him! Problem solved. Remember, you not playing for 34 out of 82 games this year meant some people could barely scrape their rent together during that time. Don't do that.

3. If you absolutely must shave something into the back of your head for some reason, make it something that's a little more humble than the acronym for "young money cash money billionaires" and instead opt for "I <3 Mom" or "Thank You WPG" or "Have Your Pets Spade Or Neutered" Or, here's an even crazier idea, just. Don't. Do. That.

4. Talent = Great! but... Humility + Talent = Legendary. If you care about your legacy, tone it down a bit.

...and lastly...

5. Keep scoring goals and winning games, because at the end of the day, none of this shit (bragging, boasting, insensitivity, and/or cockiness) matters to a city like Winnipeg if their team is winning.

Cheers!

                                                                                                                  -NxB

Playing: Borderlands 2 by Gearbox Software 

Listening to: Skrillex - "Weekends"

The Church of Scientology's full page advertorial, Chapter 17: "Journalism vs. Commerce"

Last week I wrote about the blurring line between art and commerce.

This week, let's discuss the blurring line between journalism and commerce.

Monday, The Atlantic ran an 'advertorial' (sigh) for The Church of Scientology (double sigh) which was a paid advertisement made to look exactly like The Atlantic's normal feature articles.

Yesterday, they removed the ad and issued an apology. Click the link, or here it is in full:

We screwed up. It shouldn't have taken a wave of constructive criticism -- but it has -- to alert us that we've made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way.  It's safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out.  We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge--sheepishly--that we got ahead of ourselves.  We are sorry, and we're working very hard to put things right.   

The apology was, as public apologies these days often are, in response to a Twitter and Social Media firestorm where The Atlantic was taken to task, mocked, and ridiculed.

There is a great article at The Guardian that chronicles the entire story and goes a bit deeper.

I have a couple questions.

One: Would there been this much of an uproar if the product being 'advertorialized' (triple-sigh score!) wasn't Scientology?

If it was an advertisement for, say, how well Coca-Cola or Wal-Mart has been doing lately, would people have crapped their pants over it in the same manner? I'm voting no, they would not have.

Sure, the public was upset... but for a slightly different reason than I am.

Second question: Is this where journalism is headed, too? Advertising pays the bills. And increasingly, everything from bands to magazines to newspapers are all relying on the money from corporate advertisements just to stay afloat.

With advertising paying the bills, that means advertising will (in some cases) be able to call the shots. Or, at the very least, influence the shots.

For art, that is a death sentence. For Journalism... I shudder to think at the consequences.

But... I guess... I better get used to it, baby.

                                                                                      -NxB

Playing: Borderlands 2 by Gearbox Software 

Listening to:Anything by Pegboard Nerds (currently, 'Self Destruct')

Chapter 16: Art vs. Commerce - "The definition of 'selling out' continues to blur."

Last semester we got into an interesting debate on music in advertising in Kenton's (@kentonlarsen) Advertising 1 class, and me and maybe one or two other people were the only ones (in a class of 26) that believed advertising on an album should never exist and bands/musicians/artists that sell themselves to companies are nothing short of... consumerist whores.

People that share my opinion are a dying breed.

I was asked if AFI, my favourite band of all time, was to "sell out" and feature a 30 second audio commercial on one of their albums, would I still consider them my favourite band. I said, probably not. For some reason, that's a deal-breaker for me.

However, it was an interesting debate that really made me think, as a student, as an artist, as a musician, and as a professional-PR-person-slash-advertiser-in-training.

I thought a lot about the current state of the music industry and how dozens of really talented, impressive bands/artists have gotten a big break via an iPod commercial. 

Hell, I've become a fan of multiple artists based on songs I've heard in a few different commercials:

Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead" in a Playstation PSP commercial.

The Stone Foxes "I'm a King Bee" in a Jack Daniel's commercial. (cover of a B.B. King song, I believe.)

Or Gary Jules' "Mad World" in a Gears of War trailer.

Or a Volkswagon commercial. Or a Heineken commercial. The list could go on forever. I get it. Times have changed and things aren't how they used to be. Bands don't make their money selling records anymore, and if a multi-billion dollar company comes-a-knockin', it's pretty easy to sign on the dotted line for a huge payday. 

With the advent of apps like Shazam and SoundHound, artists have the opportunity and ability to gain widespread recognition and success based on the national reach of some of these companies and their commercials or trailers.

Art shouldn't be created with capitalistic motive. Ever. But if/when art is made with integrity, who am I to look down on someone for accepting money from a company to purchase said art to sell its product?

What I can't (and won't) condone, is blatant corporate shilling intentionally masquerading as art and billing itself as art. I think the line is getting blurrier and blurrier between commerce and art in some cases, and companies recognize this and exploit it, because consumers are either incapable of recognizing the difference, or simply don't give a shit.

That leaves a bad taste in my mouth for some reason and I recognize that I'm in the minority.

People don't seem to care and I don't know when (or why) I started to, but I do.

I think artistic integrity is important when creating anything. Intentions matter.

Think about that the next time you watch a music video, see a commercial, or see an entire scene in a movie devoted to selling a product.

I'll leave you with this quick 17-second clip that sums up my feelings quite concisely:

                                                                                      -NxB

Playing: Terraria by Re-Logic 

Watching:  NFL Playoffs